Final Drive Service on a 1200GS

[_Wilks]

I thought this may be of passing interest to some of you inmates.

Yesterday I sweltered (38 degrees!) my way through a first time (for me) final drive service on my 2004 R1200GS. The beast has just ticked over 30,000 km and the time seemed right for the service - although the temperature wasn't.

Armed with some new tools (torque wrenches) and a JVB R1200GS maintenance DVD I rolled up my sleeves, sat on my arse (maybe Santa will get me a bike lift for chrissy) and got started. Less than 1 hour later the job was done!! I'm staggered as to how easy it was, even for a mechanical novice like me.

What did I learn?
1. Given the amount of metal debris I found on the magentised speed sensor, I'll be doing this service every 20,000km from now on. I wasn't alarmed by the debris but it suggested to me that more regular servicing wouldn't hurt.
2. Discovering that the spline shaft was almost devoid of gear paste was a surprise.
3. You may have to read this one twice. The rubber boot between the shaft housing and the 'diff' was not properly pressed in place. This allowed dirt and water to enter the spline chamber. The boot had popped out low down (on the wheel side) where it attaches to the shaft housing - in other words, out of sight... unless you use a mirror to inspect your bike. I don't know how long it had been like this, but the relative dryness of the spline shaft suggested it may have been a while. No apparent damage though - everything cleaned up real nice and copious amounts of gear paste had it looking the way it should.
4. Good opportunity to generally inspect things at that end of the bike.
5. The Honda gear paste (moly 60) recommended by JVB was a little hard to get hold of. The few Honda m/c shops I rang hadn't even heard of it! Dinghy World, Como came to the rescue and ordered it in for me - $50!! And that's Honda rrp. The guys at Dinghy World are real good to deal with. Big tick.
6. Refilling the 'diff' can be a pain if you haven't developed an oil decanting solution beforehand. Luckily I had.

If anyone is contemplating doing this themselves and would like a hand (even if it is only to drink a beer afterwards), pm me. We could do it on a future club tech day if others are interested. I'm only a new member (even though I've 2 bloody committe jobs already... lol) so apologies if this has already been covered at a recent club tech day.

Cheers & merry Christmas to all

Shane

[bwanainoz]

Thanks Shane, I will check mine to see if the same problem exists. There has been a lot of discussion on AdvRider about final drive failures in the early model R12GS's in the USA, although this was supposed to have been rectified on the Australian 2005+ models??? The Tech days will be at my place from January and I have a bike lift so you can periodically check the boot without crawling around on the ground. Cheers Noel